¹ There is, for example, no comparable study of the north-east frontier such as the following on the north-west frontier: Greaves, R. L., Persia and the Defence of India, 1884–1892: a study in the foreign policy of the third Marquis of Salisbury, London, 1959Google Scholar; Alder, G. J., British India's Northern frontier, 1865–95: a study in imperial policy, London, 1963.Google Scholar

² Thio, E., ‘Britain's Search for Security in North Malaya, 1886–1897’, Journal of Southeast Asian History (Singapore), Vol. X, No. 2 (09 1969), pp. 279–303Google Scholar; Ira, Klein, ‘British Expansion in Malaya, 1897–1902’, Journal of Southeast Asian History (Singapore), Vol. IX, No.1 (03 1968), pp. 53–68.Google Scholar

³ See also Thio, E., British Policy in the Malay Peninsula, 1880–1910, Vol. II (in press).Google Scholar

⁴ In the 1890s Siam came within the purview of the American and Asiatic Department at the Foreign Office and it would be interesting to know if the clerks in that Department held any strong opinions on British strategic interests in that area. Certainly, Francis Bertie, who was later to be the superintending Assistant Under-Secretary of that Department, was quick to identify the German menace to British interests in the Far East and in South-east Asia as the same danger that he had appre-hended in other parts of the world.

⁵ See Ira, Klein, ‘Britain, Siam and the Malay Peninsula, 1906–1909’, The Historical Journal, Vol. XII, No. 1 (1969), pp. 119–36, passimGoogle Scholar; ‘Salisbury, Rosebery, and the Survival of Siam’, The Journal of British Studies, Vol. 8 (11 1968), pp. 119, 123–5, 136–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Mr Klein's thesis is weakened by concentrating entirely on the Malay Peninsula and overlooking the prolongation of Anglo-French rivalry in South China long after the 1896 Declaration which settled the basic conflict in Siam.

⁶ Kiernan, V. G., ‘Britain, Siam and Malaya: 1875–1885’, The Journal of Modern History (Chicago), Vol. 28 (03 1956), pp. 1–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar; ‘The Kra Canal Projects of 1882–85; Anglo-French Rivalry in Siam and Malaya’, History, The Journal of the Historical Association, London, New Series, Vol. LXI (1956), pp. 137–57.Google Scholar

⁷ ‘Further Correspondence respecting British Influence and Policy in the Malay Peninsula, 1890–1891’, Confidential (6202), Printed for the use of the Foreign Office, May 1892, P[olitical and] S[ecret,] H[ome] C[orrespondence, Volume] 130, [India Office Library, Commonwealth Relations Office, London]. Unpublished Crown copyright material from the India Office Library is reproduced by kind permission of the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations.Google Scholar

⁸ Cross to Lansdowne, 30 January 1891, L[ansdowne] P[apers], MSS. Eur. D558/IX/III, [India Office Library, Commonwealth Relations Office, London]. Since about 1889 Salisbury had sought means of preventing the Siamese from granting any strategic concessions to foreign powers, but both the Bangkok government, which wanted too much, and the Indian authorities, who wanted to give nothing in return for such a guarantee, effectively frustrated the Foreign Secretary's plans.Google Scholar

⁹ SirSanderson, Thomas (Assistant Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office who supervised the American and Asiatic Department) to Sir Steuart Bayley (Head of the Political and Secret Department at the India Office), 20 August 1891, Private and Confidential, Demi-Official Correspondence, 1st Series, Volume 4 [India Office Library, Commonwealth Relations Office, London].Google Scholar

¹⁰ Smith, to Knutsford, , 1 June 1892, enclosed in Colonial Office to Foreign Office, 4 July 1892, F[oreign] O[ffice], 69, [Siam: Original Correspondence], Volume 147, [Public Record Office, London]. Unpublished Crown copyright material in the Public Record Office has been reproduced by kind permission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office.Google Scholar

¹¹ Minute by Jervoise, H. C. (a senior clerk in the Foreign Office who headed the American and Asiatic Department) onGoogle Scholaribid.

¹² Minute by Sanderson, , 8 July 1892, onGoogle Scholaribid.

¹³ Minute by Salisbury on ibid.

¹⁴ Jones, to Rosebery, , Tel. (not numbered), private (?), 20 July, 1893, F.O. 69/150.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Foreign Office to Colonial Office, 20 July 1893, F.O. 69/150.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Ripon, to Rosebery, , 22 July 1893, Confidential, R[osebery] P[apers], Ripon Box [National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh]. These papers were examined in the Spring of 1966 by special permission and I am grateful for the assistance of Miss Elspeth Yeo of the National Library of Scotland. The documents were then in the process of being catalogued.Google Scholar

¹⁷ The Times, 17 August 1893.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Parliamentary Question by SirDilke, Charles, M.P., 18 August 1893, Parliamentary Debates, Vol. XVI, 4th Series, 518.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Note by Currie, , 17 August 1893, F.O. 69/150.Google Scholar

²⁰ Ibid.

²¹ Rosebery, to Jones, , Secret, Tel., No. 48, 19 August 1893, F.O. 69/150.Google Scholar

²² Minute by Sanderson on Parliamentary Question by Curzon, G. N., M.P., 21 August 1893, F.O. 69/152. See also Parliamentary Debates, Vol. XVI, 4th Series, 640.Google Scholar Sir Edward Grey replied that although the matter was an important one it was not desirable for the Government to question the French Government on the basis of ‘an unauthorised report in the Press’.

²³ Minute by Grey, on Sanderson's ‘Collection of correspondence about the Kra Canal in 1885–86’, 21 August 1893, F.O. 69/152.Google Scholar

²⁴ Note by Currie, , 22 August 1893,F.O. 17, [China; Original Correspondence], [Volume] 1183, [Public Record Office,London]. These volumes of the China files entitled ‘Affairs of Burmah, Siam, French Proceedings, etc.’ were started in October 1885 and contain almost all the most important despatches and minutes relating to Siam up to 1896. They have never been used for any study of British policy in the Siamese Malay States except for whatever selected material that is found in the Foreign Office confidential print series entitled ‘Further Correspondence respecting the Affairs of Siam’ and bearing the reference F.O. 422.Google Scholar

²⁵ Rosebery, to Gladstone, , 26 August 1893, G[ladstone] P[apers], Add, MSS. 44290, [British Museum, London].Google Scholar

²⁶ Rosebery, to Currie, , 27 August 1893, Copy, D[ufferin] P[apers], D1071H/02/2, [Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Belfast]. Until 1966 when the research for this paper was carried out the Dufferin Papers had never been used for a study of British policy in Siam.Google Scholar

²⁷ ‘Affaires Coloniales’, Le Temps, 26 August 1893. My translation.Google Scholar

²⁸ Translation of a telegram received in London from Bangkok on 28 August 1893 and transmitted to the Foreign Office by the Siamese Legation, F.O. 17/1183.

²⁹ Verney, to Currie, , Private, 29 August 1893, F.O. 17/1183.Google Scholar

³⁰ Yotha, Maha to Sanderson, , Private, 30 August 1893, F.O. 69/151.Google Scholar

³¹ Sanderson, to Yotha, Maha, Private, 1 September 1893, F.O. 69/151.Google Scholar

³² Scott, to Rosebery, , No. 57, Secret, 28 November 1893 (received 8 January 1894); No. 1, Very Confidential, 28 January 1894 (received March 1894), F.O. 17/1219;Google ScholarScott, to Kimberley, , No. 9, Confidential, 3 April 1894 (received 14 May 1894), F.O. 17/1221.Google Scholar

³³ Minute by Sanderson, , 16 May 1894,Google Scholar on Scott, to Kimberley, , No. 9, Confidential, 3 April 1894, F.O. 17/1221.Google Scholar

³⁴ Kimberley, to Scott, , Tel., Secret, No. 16, 1894 May 1894, F.O. 17/1221. All attempts to gain access to the Kimberley Papers in 1966 were unsuccessful.Google Scholar

³⁵ Memorandum ‘on the present political situation in Siam and the misleading nature of the current reports thereon and the grave condition of her internal affairs’, by Morant, R. L., July 1894, F.O. 17/1223. Morant was later to become a noted British civil servant as Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Education.Google Scholar See Allen, B. M., Sir Robert Morant, a great public servant, London, 1934.Google Scholar

³⁶ Minute by Grey, , 16 August 1894,Google Scholar on ibid.

³⁷ Minute by Sanderson, , 17 August 1894,Google Scholar on ibid.

³⁸ ‘Copy of Lord Kimberley's minute’ by Murray, G. (Rosebery's private secretary), 23 August 1894, RP, Foreign Affairs, 1894–95 Box.Google Scholar

³⁹ Rosebery, to Kimberley, , 24 August 1894, Copy, RP, Letter Book, 1894–1895.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Rosebery, to Kimberley, , Secret, 21 October 1894, Copy, RP, Kimberley Box. This statement must not be taken to represent Rosebery's real opinion of the Siamese as he had never met any of them. He also had a low opinion of Verney.Google ScholarCf. Klein, Ira, ‘Britain, Siam and the Malay Peninsula, 1906–1909’, Historical Journal XII, 1, p. 126.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Kimberley, to Rosebery, , Private, 27 October 1894, RP, Kimberley Box.Google Scholar

⁴² Kimberley, to Bunsen, De, No. 65, Most Confidential, 27 October 1894, F.O. 17/1225.Google Scholar This despatch is also to be found in the biography of Bunsen, De, Dugdale, E. T. S., Maurice de Bunsen, Diplomat and Friend, London, 1934, pp. 117–18.Google Scholar

⁴³ Ibid.

⁴⁴ Minute by Villiers, F. H. (an Assistant Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office), 7 January 1895,Google Scholar on Bunsen, De to Kimberley, , No. 64, 3 December 1894 (Received 7 January 1895), F.O. 69/153.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Hanotaux, to Courcel, De, No. 141, 27 May 1895, Ang[leterre: Correspondence] Pol[itique, Volume] 904, [Service des Archives, Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, Quai d'Orsay, Paris]. These documents were only open for inspection up to 1897.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Bunsen, De to Bertie, Francis, Private, 20 June 1895, F.O. 17/1268.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Bunsen, De to Bertie, , Private, 1 October 1895, F.O. 17/1271,Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Sanderson, to Curzon, , 6 July 1895, C[urzon] P[apers], MSS. Eur.F.111/87, [India Office Library, Commonwealth Relations Office, London].Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Memorandum on ‘Siam, France and China’ by Curzon, G. N., Printed for the use of the Foreign Office, August 1895, Confidential, CP, MSS. Eur.F.111/87.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Chamberlain, to Salisbury, , 4 September 1895, S[alisbury] P[apers], Special Correspondence:Google ScholarChamberlain, Joseph, [Christ Church Library, Oxford].Google Scholar

⁵¹ Salisbury, to Chamberlain, , 21 September 1895, Chamberlain Papers. Extracts from the Chamberlain Papers at Birmingham University kept on microfilm at the University of Singapore.Google Scholar

⁵² Memorandum entitled ‘Siam Negotiations’ by Salisbury, , possibly 18 October 1895, CP, MSS. Eur.F.111/87. This vital document has not been found in any of the official records or private papers. It is typewritten and was clearly Salisbury's defence of his decision to propose a limited guarantee of Siam's independence.Google Scholar

⁵³ Draft letter to Baron De Courcel, undated, enclosed in Sanderson to SirLee-Warner, William (Head of the Political and Secret Department at the India Office), 31 October 1895, PSHC/163. This draft letter containing the heads of a possible Anglo-French agreement over Siam is also missing in the F.O. records although it was printed for the use of the Foreign Office and bears the Printing Department's date-stamp: 31 October.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Hanotaux, to Defrance, , 25 October 1895, Siam [: Correspondance] Pol[itique, Volume] 23, [Service des Archives, Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, Quai d'Orsay, Paris]; Marcelin Berthelot (French Foreign Minister, November 1895–June 1896)Google Scholar to Courcel, De, No. 317, 14 November 1895, Ang/Pol/909.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Memorandum on ‘The question of British interests in the country between the Bay of Bengal and the South China Sea’ by Hamilton, Lord George, Secret, 19 November 1895, Cabinet Papers, Series 1, Vol. 2, Miscellaneous Records, Public Record Office, London.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ British relations with the United States of America and Germany became strained at this time over the Venezuelan boundary dispute and the Kruger telegram respectively.

⁵⁷ Sanderson, to Dufferin, , Private, 20 December 1895, DP, D107H/04/2.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Salisbury, to Bunsen, De, Tel., No. 2, Secret, 24 January 1896. F.O. 69/169.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ See Numnonda, Thamsook, ‘The Anglo-Siamese Secret Convention of 1897’, Journal of the Siam Society, January 1965, Vol. LIII, Pt. 1, pp. 45–61.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Balfour, to Barrington, , 28 January 1896, Copy, Balfour Papers, Add. MSS. 49746, British Museum, London. This letter has been mistakenly taken as an indication of Balfour's opposition to a fuller guarantee of Siam which it certainly was not as the date on it clearly shows.Google ScholarCf. Klein, Ira, ‘British Expansion in Malaya, 1897–1902’, Journal of Southeast Asian History, IX, I, p. 55.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Bunsen, De to Curzon, , 14 May 1896, CP, MSS. Eur.F.111/81.Google Scholar

⁶² Bunsen, De to Curzon, , 11 July 1896, CP, Box 70, Kedleston Hall, nr. Derby. I am indebted to Viscount Scarsdale for permission to use the bulk of the original Curzon papers which are still kept at Kedleston.Google Scholar

⁶³ Minute by Bertie, , 21 August 1896,Google Scholar on Bunsen, De to Salisbury, , No. 43, Confidential, 15 July 1896, F.O. 17/1295.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Salisbury, to Curzon, , 30 August 1896, CP, Box 70, Kedleston Hall.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ It is not altogether clear when it was decided that the agreement should be secret and who was responsible for it. Dr Thio states that the Siamese requested it and cites as evidence a conversation between Curzon and Svasti of 27 July 1896 and Salisbury's minute on a memorandum of that conversation. Thio, , ‘Britain's search for Security in North Malaya’, Journal of Southeast Asian History, X, 2, p. 302. But Salisbury's letter to Curzon of 30 08 1896 cited above seems to go against Dr Thio's theory.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Godley, to Elgin, Lord (Viceroy of India), 21 May 1897, Elgin Papers, MSS. Eur.F.84/136, India Office Library, Commonwealth Relations Office, London.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Minute by Bertie, , 9 April 1897, on Colonial Office to Foreign Office, 8 April 1897, F.O. 69/187.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Foreign Office to Colonial Office, 10 April 1897, F.O. 69/187.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Swettenham, to Chamberlain, , Private, 23 July 1897, Chamberlain Papers, JC 9/6/1/5, Birmingham University Library.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Minutes by Chamberlain, , 25 August 1897Google Scholar, and C. P. Lucas (of the Colonial Office) on ibid.